


Truth or Truth

by selfinduced



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Infidelity, M/M, and magnus is trapped in edom but does that mean they're still engaged?, and seelies can't lie, but i think clace is canon at the time, emotional cheating def, i am actually asleep while i type this, i didn't watch the ep so i'm not sure who's still dating who, infidelity? i think??, lol what are plot and morals, that thing where jace can't lie in edom because he's linked to meliorn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-20
Updated: 2019-06-20
Packaged: 2020-05-15 08:44:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19292263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/selfinduced/pseuds/selfinduced
Summary: As opposed to truth or dare, because--in Edom, Jace is linked to Meliorn.“You can’t lie, can you,” Alec laughs, running after him.And: "He gets to know what you taste like and I don't."





	Truth or Truth

**Author's Note:**

> Look, the "can't lie because part seelie" Jace opportunity was too good to pass up but I'm avoiding working on an actual fic and half asleep and frustrated so we're populating the jalec tag so this is less fic and more a sketch because I don't write fanfic, I let my irrational and filth ridden brain spout pure unadulterated self indulgent Edom porn. Will come back and see if any of this is coherent later.

 

 

 

 

“I can’t lie, can I?” Jace realizes as Meliorn smirks at him.

 

This is not going to go well.

 

He’s started to realize that ignoring Meliorn’s incessant questions altogether gives away how uncomfortable he is, so he tries . He can’t lie, but if he’s careful, he can pause before he speaks so he doesn’t blurt out the truth, and with some practice, only share the parts of the truth and hold the rest back.

 

“On a scale of one to ten how attractive do you think I am?”

“You’re like, a nine,” Jace rolls his eyes at Meliorn, who looks touched and possibly  _giddy_  which distracts Jace for about two seconds before he doubles over, clutching his side.

“What is it?” Meliorn swings around his staff.

“Alec,” Jace gasps out, “He’s hurt.” He pulls out his blades and breaks into a run, Meliorn close behind him.

 

“Jace!” Alec shoots out stream of magical fire at the ghoul flying above his head as Jace throws a blade at the wyvern circling above Alec, both of them grinning at each other as they meet their targets, falling instinctively back to back, Alec taking them out of the sky with magic instead of his arrows and Jace taking care of the ones that Alec misses and giving him time to heal himself with warlock magic, since runes don't seem to work here.

 

-

 

“I thought Lorenzo was with you,” Jace shouts into the sulfur smelling wind.

“We got separated. Where’s Meliorn? I thought he’d be with you.”

“He’s right—fuck. He was right here.” Jace flips his blades and sheathes them as the remaining two ghouls fly off rather than face them. “I can’t use tracking runes here, and he doesn’t have any powers down here with no plants, I’m scared he’s defenseless.”

 

Alec stares at him.

“Fuck.” Jace swears again, his cheeks reddening as he rolls his eyes and starts to walk in the direction the flying demons had gone. “Let’s try this way.”

“You can’t lie, can you,” Alec laughs, running after him.

“Don’t start.” Jace holds up a hand and speeds up, but Alec speeds up too and easily catches up with him.

“Oh no, this is  _great_ , just you and me, all alone in hell and you not being able to lie to me.”

“You’re my parabatai, I can’t lie to you anyway.”

 

“That doesn’t usually stop you.” Alec’s snaps, surprised at himself. He'd been going for light, but the mood of this place is--oppressive.

“I lied about dying to protect you! I thought we were past this.”

“Sure. Tell me how you’re feeling about being in Edom where Lilith could catch you?”

“Fuck you, you know how I’m feeling. I'm sick to my stomach and I know I'm not going to make it back out of here, but it's Izzy and if I have to stay in hell to get her out it's not even a question. I'm just praying to the Angel that Lilith doesn't get to me before I can see Izzy safely out of here.”

“Lilith can take you over my dead body." Alec frowns at him, eyes blazing, "Not after everything we've all been through to get you back.”

Jace whirls around, “You’re a fucking piece of work, you know that? You’re so fucking self righteous like you never do anything wrong, poor Alec, weight of the Lightwood name on his shoulders, always dropping everything to come rescue me from whatever new way the universe has decided to try to break me with, while I go off taking stupid risks like I don't care about the pain I put you through. Well it's not like I get a choice about whether I get possessed by the Queen of Hell or kidnapped by my abusive father who turned out to be an impostor, or not like I haven't spent my whole life afraid that you’ll throw me away when I’m not worth it anymore."

"Jace, what? I could never--where is all this coming from?"

 

"You said  _my_  sister, Alec, the second I displeased you. And Robert and Maryse were ready to write me off for having demon blood."

"That was months ago. We apologized. I was--"

“One and a half months, and I remember it every time I feel scared and alone and insecure. And you keep talking about what everyone gave up to save me from Lilith, like I don't feel guilty enough." Jace grits his teeth against his own words. "What? You were what?”

"I was jealous." 

"Of Clary, I know, you've never really accepted her being in my life. It's why I accepted how you acted and didn't leave thinking you were better off without me."

"Jace." Alec looks like he's been punched in the gut, word coming out breathless. "I told you, if I lost you--"

"I know!" Jace shouts into the howling wind, "Don't you think I know that and that's the only reason I didn't actually kill myself? I don't deserve to be alive, Alec! Not after everything I've done! This whole thing--all of this--is because Jonathan wanted to fight _me_. Lilith came after _me_. Izzy wouldn't be in here, Magnus wouldn't be trapped in here. Dozens of mundanes and shadowhunters and my grandmother would still be alive!"

"None of that was your fault!"

"It was _because of_   me! It doesn't matter if I did it on purpose, if I was dead, none of it would be happening!" 

"Stop it!" Alec shouts back.

 

"You wanted the truth," Jace says, eyes pained and voice hoarse, jaws working as he clenches his teeth. "Can we stop talking now?"

Alec nods, but moves forward, reaching for him, needing to touch him, hold him, as he always needs to when Jace is hurting.

Jace shakes his head and backs away.

Alec tries to swallow down the need to comfort, to be comforted, giving Jace space.

 

"It's not that I don't want to," Jace says after a silence, running a hand through his hair and speeds up, running away without running. 

Alec should let him go. Keep giving him space. But it's not safe, he tells himself, speeding up too.

"Dammit Alec."

"No, it's okay, I'll only talk about stupid things. What should I wear to my meeting with the Clave? I think I need a new blazer."

"You need to burn all your blazers. I don't know who told you those were a good idea because Izzy and Magnus actually have taste."

"Wait, all of them?"

"All of them. If you're going to wear a suit, just wear a suit."

"No tie? What about the shirt I borrowed from Magnus?"

"Magnus's clothes work great on Magnus, not you. You should have just asked him to take you shopping and he would've picked out something that works on you. Although I get wanting to wear your boyfriend's clothes. I'd want--" He speeds up, running off again.

"You'd want what? It can't be that bad, we're not talking about serious stuff. I can take criticism." Alec says gamely as he catches up with him.

"If we were together it'd make me even crazier to see you wearing my shirt than it already does now when you borrow them. Because I could actually do something about it. I'm just glad Magnus seems to know how lucky he is."

 

-

 

Alec frowns, heart stuttering faster than his mind can keep up with.  _Make me even crazier to see you wearing my shirt than it already does now. Wearing my shirt. Make me crazy--_ No, he can't push. Too much. "That's a cave, I think," he says instead, pointing at a shadow in the cliffs ahead, "We can stop there and hold our ground easier while we try to figure out how to get to the others."

"Yeah." Jace relaxes minutely. More and more in the safety of silence. "We're going to need to rest, too, without stamina runes."

They're almost at the cave when the greedy, less accommodating side of Alec wins. "What did that mean, earlier?" he blurts out, studying Jace's face.

"He gets to know what you taste like and I don't." The words come out unguarded, replacing the "What?" Jace meant to ask, pretending he didn't know what Alec was asking, and he's just taken advantage, Alec knows this, and yet he can't feel anything but the deafening and unrepentant beat of his own heart as he watches Jace actually cover his mouth with his hand and look at Alec, betrayed and--afraid. That's fear in his eyes.

 

Alec stares and swallows, and stares and stares and stares.

Jace shakes his head and runs away, full out sprinting this time.

"Wait."

If anything, Jace runs even faster, "For once in our lives, Alec, can you please just _let it go_."

"No, no I fucking can't." Alec can't catch up fully but once they're inside, Jace has to stop, and he can grab Jace's elbow and _pull_ until Jace is forced to swing around. "What are you saying? Since when do you--"

"Since forever, Alec! Have you seen you?"

"What?" Alec stumbles, unable to get any air, "how come I never –- did you know about –- Jace." His voice is pleading.

"Did I know about your feelings for me? No, I never really let myself think about it. Until the last year, seeing you with – forget it. It's fucked up and I'm sorry. We're good now. You're in love and getting married to someone you deserve as soon as we can save him. I have Clary. Which maybe I don't deserve but lucky for me she seems to think I do and. And you and I have each other as parabatai. Everything is fine. More than fine."

 

"Right." Alec can't stop staring. At his mouth, the flare of his jawline, the long eyelashes hiding his eyes from Alec's.  _Jace,_  his heart sings, single-minded and unhelpful. Every beat echoing his name. 

"Stop looking at me. I can't stop myself if you keep looking at me like that." He looks up, finally, eyes moving on Alec's face like a caress, soft and yearning.

"Stop yourself from doing what?" Alec whispers.

"Thinking about kissing you. How hard it is to not touch you right now." Jace says, quiet and defeated.

 

Alec leaps on him then, body acting before he knows what he's doing, the way it moves in battle, cupping Jace's face and kissing the words right out of his mouth until Jace is breathless and moaning and _his_. 

"Alec, dammit don't do this, fuck," Jace arches into the kiss, hand fisting at Alec's shirt and his face, kissing back like he's drowning, and Alec is his air. "We can't just--" 

Alec sucks his lower lip into his mouth and Jace groans helplessly, clutching at him. 

"Alec, please."

"Please what?" Alec pants, biting ruthlessly at his neck, can feel how it makes Jace weak and dizzy, tightens his arms to hold him upright, "Do you really want me to stop?"

"Never. I never want you to stop kissing me. But we're not supposed to." Jace writhes against him, "Fuck, Alec. Your mouth."

"Jace," Alec rasps, giving in to his heartbeat, "Jace Jace Jace _Jace_." Kisses up his neck to his ear, picks him up to press him against the cave wall. 

"Being in hell and part demon is making you do this," Jace hides his face in his neck even as he wraps his legs around Alec's waist. "You want to satisfy curiosity."

"Being in love with you my whole life is making me do this." He runs his fingers through Jace's hair, curling them on the back of his neck to bring him down for another kiss. 

"Does that mean you still want me?" Jace makes a face like he didn't mean for the words to come out, as if it's not too late for everything by now.

"I could never stop," Alec admits. It's only fair, the honesty.

 

The stupid thing about Jace is that he's like the fucking sun. You can close your eyes but he'll still shine through. Light up all the things no one wants to see. Blithely cutting air and demons with his blades and his smile until you can't breathe for fear of revealing too much. But they've revealed already, and--

 

"Alec," Jace holds his face, eyes bright even in the low light, mouth open in wonder.

"Do you know what it does to me when you say my name like that?" Alec brushes his mouth on the side of his neck, rests him on a ledge so he can run his hands up Jace's thighs, under his jacket and his shirt onto  _skin,_ glorious, intoxicating skin, watching Jace's eyes go almost completely dark with thin rings of blue and brown.

"Tell me." Jace noses at his neck.

"What?" Alec tilts his head to let Jace tug and unbutton and pull apart his shirt, bite gently at his shoulder, where Alec never knew he had so many nerve endings, but oh, he does, and Jace is touching all of them.

"That you're still in--"

"You have to ask?" Alec turns to him and whispers, cups his jaw to bring his face back up and kiss his mouth again. Jace moans and chases blindly at him when Alec pulls back just enough to look at him, see how he looks when he makes that sound, and gets completely derailed--

 

Jace's hands are on his belt, unbuckling, palming at his stomach but so close to where he needs it that Alec doesn't think, hurtles even faster forward towards the cliff they're about to jump off as he takes Jace's hand, presses it down harder on his own skin and holds his eyes as he pushes it down, groaning and shuddering when Jace cups his hand, obliging, eyes hungry and disbelieving, mouth open as he spreads his fingers, strokes the outline of Alec's cock along the zipper, glancing up as he undoes the button, pulls it down. 

Alec's frozen, rooted to the ground. Then frantic when he realizes he can do it back. Everything becomes a blur of Jace's skin baring under his hands and Jace trying to get him just as naked at the same time. It works. They know each other too well, and now Jace's hand is on his neck, nails scratching along the back before putting both arms around Alec, caging him in even as Alec moves inside them, tugs down at his boxers, wraps his hand around his cock.

Jace breathes sharply, arching into his hand, and Alec squeezes him.

"Alec, slow down," He gasps. And Alec does. He  _slowly_  runs his other hand down the trail of hair down the center of his belly to hold Jace's boxers down and out of the way so there's more room to maneuver--stares down at his hand and it makes him even more crazy to see it than feel it, the heated velvety skin over hardness. He sucks on Jace's neck and jerks him slow and light until Jace is coming apart trying to get more.

"Slow enough?" Alec rasps.

"Torture," Jace groans, putting his own hands into Alec's briefs in retaliation, trails a finger up the side of his cock and Alec curses, cock jerking and moving reflexively away. 

"Not yet, not," he moans into Jace's mouth and goes to his knees, tugging his jeans down farther to make room and looking up as he lowers his head. Leans forward to brush his mouth over the heated skin like a kiss on the cheek. Except it's burning hot and so are his cheeks and he glances up through his lashes when he tries it again.

Jace looks like he doesn't know whether to cry or laugh hysterically and Alec can relate. 

 

He purses his lips and kisses open mouthed and wet, smirking when Jace makes a choked sound. Opens his mouth and covers the whole top of it this time, licking around the head and savoring the texture and the way Jace's hips circle slightly but don't buck up enough to get in his way, and sinks down in earnest until he's got as much as he can in his mouth, swallowing and working his throat. The last month has been--educational.

"Angel. Fuck,  _A-lec."_ Jace's hips rock up at him, a hand gripping at his hair, other one gripping the edge of the rock shelf, white knuckled.

Alec puts his hand over Jace's and strokes until Jace frees his fingers to slide them into Alec's. They haven't held hands in a long time.

Jace tugs at his hair, hard when Alec doesn't go with it, moaning hungrily. "Alec, c'mere, I need--need to touch you," Jace tugs harder, and Alec lifts, dazed, pressing forward so they're lined up and Jace's hand--callused, fingers thick and forearm flexing as he works both of their cocks. Alec brings their joined hands to take the other side, leaning his head against Jace's, breathless and panting and licking at each other's mouths as they squeeze and press together, heat building tight and paralyzing as Jace leans back to look at him, mouth opening red and wet and perfect as he pulses in Alec's hand, pulling him along, and it's a mess, it's a lot, and when Jace brings his dripping hand to his mouth and licks it, still holding his eyes, Alec can do nothing but kiss him, lick into him, filthy and mindless and lost.

 

-

 

"Alec, what did we just do?"

Alec grazes his teeth gently on his lips, "Fulfilled all of my adolescent dreams?"

Jace gives a startled laugh. "All of them, huh?"

"Okay, maybe thirty percent of them."

Jace grins against his cheek. "Only thirty?"

"Oh, all one hundred were about you, just doing different things." Alec nuzzles back, teasing, "I had a very active imagination? You were... inspiring."

Jace laughs again, pulling him close and rubbing his nose into Alec's jaw. "I love you. So much."

He'd guessed, but his heart stops for a second anyway.

"I should feel horrible but I can't. I'm about to be stuck in hell, maybe we just get to have this once."

"You are _not_ about to be stuck anywhere," Alec kisses him, a promise. "Not without me."

"You're impossible."

"I  _am_. I'm also in hell and rune linked to a warlock, so there's that." Alec shrugs. "And I'm still yours. Always have been."  He kisses Jace's hand, "And we're together." Kisses his wrist, "And we're going to save the world, explain ourselves, and go back to this. All the time."


End file.
